There are many kinds of setting techniques prevalent in the industry for decades. The basic idea of all kinds of settings is to hold the precious stones like diamonds with minimum metal so as to expose the stone or the diamond to maximum light, thereby making it visibly more attractive. The intent is to give the jewelry a bold and bigger look by creating an illusion of a single large diamond at a fraction of the cost of a solitaire diamond.
One such setting is the pressure setting wherein the centre round shaped stone is held in place by the surrounding 6 (six) stones in a circular pattern, and overlapping it. The centre stone is secured in place with the pressure applied from these stones. There is limitation in the look achieved which entirely depends on the sizes of the diamonds used. The bigger the size of the diamonds used, the higher is the perceived price. The maximum number of diamonds used in such kinds of settings is 13 (thirteen). The above technique is limited to a two layered setting pattern if the centre stone is considered as the first layer.
A similar alternate setting places the centre stone below 4 (four) equally sized round shaped stones in a square formation. The centre stone sits on the rim of the metal below. The centre stone does not depend upon the upper stones for being secured. The limitations are again similar to the first instance of setting.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,546,749 (Biren Richard Warren) describes an article of jewelry that supports a plurality of primary stones in a linear mounting array which is bordered on both sides by accent stones. The girdles of the primary stones and of the accent stones are positioned close to each other with the accent stone girdles being above the primary stone girdles. The patent disclosed a method of making the article of jewelry which includes the use of a lost wax casting process followed by hand-setting of the accent stones and an application of a highly reflective coating, such as rhodium to surfaces that are adjacent the areas of congruence of the primary and accent stones. The resultant piece of jewelry presents the appearance of floating or unsupported primary stones.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,461,452 (Fine Jewellery (India) Ltd.) discloses a center stone held by small prongs, an outer series of stones wherein each outer stone is held by a pair of large prongs, and an intermediate series of stones held by the larger outer prongs which hold the small stones so that the intermediate stones partially cover the centre stone and outer series of stones in a manner which conceals the way the outer stones are held.
The above techniques are limited to a two layered setting pattern if the centre stone(s) are (is) considered as the first layer. The look achieved by the above patents entirely depends on the sizes of the diamonds used. The bigger the size of the diamonds used, the higher is the perceived price.
The need is to improve upon the setting techniques wherein smaller sized stones (but more in number) can be used to give a much bigger illusion at a much lesser price, thereby adding infinite number of layers.